Derrick Rose missed Sunday’s game against the Bulls with back spasms he’s been dealing with. But the bigger concern may be why they haven’t gone away. So Rose will be seeing a specialist on Monday, he told reporters before Chicago’s game against Boston. Via CSN Chicago:

Rose will see a specialist Monday when the Bulls return to Chicago, but wouldn’t speculate on whether he’d play in the team’s next game, Tuesday against Sacramento at the United Center.

“Probably go see some people tomorrow, have them look at it. But I don’t know yet,” he said. “I can’t say I’m going to be out. If I feel good tomorrow, I’m definitely going to play then, but I don’t know yet.”

Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau, who started C.J. Watson in Rose’s place, indicated that the organization would be cautious with Rose.

“It’s not cleared up as much as we would like right now. He still has a little bit of stiffness, so we decided it’s better to sit him out of this one,” he said. “Once we get back home, we’ll have a chance to go see a specialist and we’ll go from there.

“Well, you’re always concerned. It’s something that he’s had before. He had it when he was in high school, so we’re hopeful it gets cleared up shortly, but we want to make sure.

So that’s not good. Rose is pivotal to the Bulls’ chances, but at least they’re invested in getting him right for the playoffs. The rest of the team is good enough behind Tom Thibodeau’s defense to sustain without Rose, and having him healthy for the playoffs needs to be the priority. So this is a good move.

But where was it a few weeks ago when Rose was dealing with various injuries including an ankle issue? Here was a particularly interesting quote from CSN Chicago:

“It was the whole trip, but I just played through it. The more I played through it, it tended to get worse after every game. At the time, I was really worried about it, but just tried to stay positive and hopefully I’ll be all right.

Am I the only who, if my MVP was having the sniffles, if he had any hitch in his giddy-up, if he had Carpal Tunnel, I would keep him out as long as I had a top five seed in the East? This is a season about survival. It got worse every game… and yet he’s playing. And not just playing, playing heavy minutes.

There’s trusting your player, and there’s doing what’s best for your team. Rose needs to go down for a long stretch of time to get completely healthy. The Bulls are gambling with chips they’re going to need in three months.

excellent post. as a Cubs fan, and Bulls fan, I have this sick feeling in my stomach that Coach Thibs is pulling a Dusty Baker, circa Cubs 2003. that was the year Baker rode Prior and Wood like there was no tomorrow. both were Top-5 in the MLB for Innings Pitched. both saw their career literally ended as a result of that season’s workload. we’re basically halfway through this shortened season, and between Deng, Rose, Noah, and Hamilton, the Bulls have had all 5 starters available in fewer than 5 of their first 30 games.

Thibs isn’t resting his players like he should, you’d think that a condensed season would change his tune, but the game Luol Deng comes back from injury, he plays 41 minutes. It’s not like the bench is horrible.

exactly. deepest bench in the league, without any debate. a legitimate 12-deep (that’s what she said). juvenile jokes aside, they also are one of the youngest teams in the league, so providing valuable minutes to Asik, Gibson, Watson, and Lucas only enhances their playoff potential. something else that bothers me is Rip Hamilton’s phantom groin injury. dude misses 7 games, comes back for his first visit back to Detroit and plays a huge game, then immediately sits back down and misses the next 13 games (and counting). who misses two months with a groin pull?! the latest Bulls statement lists Hamilton as “out indefinitely”. with a groin?? makes me wonder if there’s already personality clashes with Thibs and Rip, and he’s being disciplined. seems to be a repeat of Hamilton with Detroit last year, where he missed dozens of games for “various reasons”. the season is half over and he’s missed 20 of 30 games.

“Am I the only who, if my MVP was having the sniffles, if he had any hitch in his giddy-up, if he had Carpal Tunnel, I would keep him out as long as I had a top five seed in the East? This is a season about survival. It got worse every game… and yet he’s playing. And not just playing, playing heavy minutes.

There’s trusting your player, and there’s doing what’s best for your team. Rose needs to go down for a long stretch of time to get completely healthy. The Bulls are gambling with chips they’re going to need in three months.:

Disagree totally. First off, having home court and at the least getting the 2 seed is huge for this team, especially giving how Indiana and Philly have giving them some trouble.

Secondly, with Loul and RIP missing so much time, you really need someone to shoulder the load and carry the team on. I don’t care who you are or who you are playing, if you have 3 of your 5 starters out, you are going to drop a lot of games.

Third, who said Rose told Chicago about it? Who said it was that serious to begin with? The majority of people wake up with some level of pain somewhere yet don’t seek medical attention until it is severe. Giving how tough Rose is, this is most likely the case.

Finally, no where in this article does it say this has been going on for ‘weeks’. This started on Monday, that would have been 1 week since the road trip started. Don’t try to hype it up and make it more then what it is. Horrible journalism in a very weak attempt to drum up controversy and get some hits on the link.